The external affairs director for the UN’s Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) Tamara Alrifai said conditions remain ‘very dire’ across the Gaza Strip and only a continuous flow of aid across the border will be enough to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

Most UNRWA staff themselves have been displaced to shelters following the evacuation order, and 16 of them have now been killed as Israeli airstrikes and shelling continue.

She told UN News’ Ezzat El-Ferri that safe humanitarian access to the large aid convoy massed at the Rafah crossing must be granted immediately along with a ceasefire.